There are many devices in use on cars to recuperate electricity such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,477,764 wherein an energy generating and storage system for an electric vehicle is adapted to generate and recharge the principal electric storage battery to recover substantial energy losses occurring during normal operation of the vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,334,498 describes a hybrid vehicle having an engine and a motor to be controlled independently of each other for running the vehicle. The vehicle is given a braking demand detecting function to detect a braking demand through an idle ON of the engine while the vehicle is running, and a first braking function to suppress the rise in the vehicle speed of the vehicle by a regenerative braking force of the motor if the braking demand is detected by the braking demand detecting function.
There are also bicycles using the turning wheel in order to actuate a dynamo such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,502,842 wherein a power generating device includes a dynamo, a rack mounted on the frame of a bicycle to hold the dynamo, and a wheel attached to the rack. When the device is engaged, the wheel contacts the ground and rotates to drive the dynamo while the bicycle is in motion.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,768,273 is also directed at bicycles and discloses a bicycle charge control circuit for receiving electric power from a bicycle dynamo and for controlling the operation of a lamp and a charging circuit includes a lamp switch for selectively providing power from the dynamo to the lamp, a battery charged by the dynamo, and a lamp control circuit operatively coupled to the first lamp switch and to the battery to control the first lamp switch to intermittently supply power to the lamp when the battery voltage is below a selected value.
The prior art does not disclose a simple yet efficient system that can be adapted to a variety of vehicles and produce supplementary electricity.